Obama: 'All of us make mistakes'

9/18/12 6:27 PM EDT

President Obama, responding to a question about Mitt Romney's secretly taped comments at a fundraiser, said on Tuesday that "all of us make mistakes."

"What people want to know, though, is you're not writing off a big chunk of the country," he said during an appearance on "The Late Show with David Letterman," according to a pool report. "This is a big country. And people disagree a lot but, one thing I’ve never tried to do and I think none of us can do in public office is suggest that because someone doesn’t agree with me that they’re vicitms or they’re unpatriotic."

"There are not a lot of people out there who think they’re victims,” he said. “There are not a lot of people who think they’re entitled to something.”

But, he said, government does have a role to play.

“We’ve got some obligations to each other, and there’s nothing wrong with us giving each other a helping hand so that that single mom’s kid, even after all the work she’s done, can afford to go to college,” Obama said.

Romney said at the fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans are dependent on government and "believe that they are victims" who are entitled to government support, remarks that he stood behind Tuesday.

“When I won in 2008, 47 percent of the American people voted for John McCain,” Obama said, according to the pool report. “They didn’t vote for me and what I said on election night was: ‘Even though you didn’t vote for me, I hear your voices, and I’m going to work as hard as I can to be your president.’”

The president also echoed remarks by his press secretary earlier in the day.

"One of the things I learned as president is you represent the entire country," he said. "If you want to be president, you have to work for everyone."